CHAPTER V 



THE FURTHER GROWTH OF SCIENCE 



The year 1700 is chosen as the beginning of the modern 

 scientific period, because the theoretical and practical 

 applications of science began to be widely comprehended 

 during the eighteenth century. Many important facts in 

 astronomy, in geography, and even in biological science were, 

 indeed, ascertained before this time. The scientific method 

 was recognized by certain individuals. But the great ex- 

 tensions of detailed knowledge and appreciation of the 

 meaning of many scientific facts had not taken place. By 

 the middle of the eighteenth century scientific thinking had 

 become emancipated from superstition and started on its 

 own path of unprejudiced observation and experimentation. 

 During the latter half of the century there was rapid 

 advancement in many lines. In the biological sciences, 

 foundations were being laid for the later Cell-Theory, and 

 the first definite statement of Organic Evolution was being 

 promulgated; while comprehension of physiological proc- 

 esses was opening the way to a science of medicine. In 

 astronomy and the physical sciences, the concept of a 

 dynamic as opposed to a static universe came to be recog- 

 nized as a scientific fact, and the theories of Conservation of 

 Energy and of Chemical Combination began to assume 

 definitive form. In the field now designated as that of 

 political and social science, the secularization of many 

 activities, the progress of individualism, of rationalism, and 

 of toleration indicate a growing scientific temper. The 

 attempts to apply scientific fact and method in the solution 

 of larger social problems indicate the hold which science had 

 obtained upon mankind by the close of this first century of 



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